Sara Stagg, Head of Strings at Marlborough College, will be performing The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams in Malmesbury Abbey on April 22nd with the Royal Wootton Bassett Orchestra in a concert of English composers and landscapes. Tickets are £10 and can be booked here.
The Lark Ascending has been voted number one choice in Classic FM’s Hall of Fame nine times in recent years. First performed in 1921, the lark is depicted by the solo violin and combines with the orchestra to evoke green meadows, woods, brooks, dancing children – a pastoral scene. There are also echoes of English folk music
Sara, who has previously performed the piece in St Georges, Bristol and in London, told Marlborough.news, “It’s such a beautiful piece and will soar around the rafters in Malmesbury Abbey. It can be played in a multitude of ways but it takes an English person to really interpret it and capture the nostalgia.”
Sara will be playing a Cassutti violin made in Cremona.
In addition to being Head of Strings at Marlborough College, Sara also teaches violin and viola at Westonbirt School. She graduated from Manchester University with Honours in Music as well as studying with the Lindsay Quartet. She was awarded an LRSM Diploma while studying with Dennis Simmons, the former leader of the BBC Philharmonic, and Vesselin Gellev, the co-principal of London Philharmonic.
She is the leader of Bath Concertina, North Wiltshire Symphony Orchestra, Bath Spa Quartet, Bristol Chamber Orchestra, Tessitoura. She is guest conductor and leader of the Argyle Orchestra in Bath and guest leader of the Bristol Classical Players, working with soloists such as Stephen Hough and Jennifer Pike. She regularly performs with Bristol Opera and gives masterclasses to local orchestras. Sara makes frequent solo appearances with many different orchestras. She has also been involved in creating Stringbabies, a book designed to introduce very young pupils to the violin.
The Royal Wootton Bassett Orchestra Concert on April 22nd also includes Hubert Parry’s Symphony No 3 The English which evokes the English countryside in sunshine and showers; Dorothy Carwithen’s Suffolk Suite which paints a vivid picture of the Suffolk landscapes she loved and has a captivating, melodic style; and Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Petite Suite de Concert which has four contrasting movements with rich textures and memorable melodies.
Join Sara and the orchestra for this wide ranging celebration of English music. Tickets cost £10 and are available from the orchestra’s website here.
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